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President Reagan began by announcing that his speech would not be a litany of achievements over the past seven years of his administration, but that he would continue to propose policy initiatives. He outlined the following objectives:

Keep the economy strong and growing

Review the state of social programs

Continue spreading democracy around the world

Maintain a strong defense

Reagan discussed the federal deficit, the size of the federal budget, abortion, crime, drugs, the line-item veto, foreign relations and the Soviet war in Afghanistan. He famously summarized the effect of government intervention on the poor:[2]

Some years ago the federal government declared War on Poverty, and poverty won. Today the federal government has 59 major welfare programs and spends more than $100 billion a year on them. What has all this money done? Well, too often it has made poverty harder to escape. Federal welfare programs have created a massive social problem. With the best of intentions, government created a poverty trap that wreaks havoc on the very support system the poor need most to lift themselves out of poverty: the family.

In closing he returned to his vision of America as a city on a hill: "We can be proud ... that another generation of Americans has protected and passed on lovingly this place called America, this shining city on a hill, this government of, by, and for the people."

The speech lasted approximately 44 minutes and consisted of 4,955 words.[3] The address was broadcast live on radio and television.